Basic Introduction to Honeysuckle Tea from Suichang
The wild honeysuckle with high content, unique to Guizhou, grows in the charming Chinese poetry town and hometown of Chinese chili – Suichang County. The environment here is beautiful and the climate pleasant, with an average altitude of around 1,300 meters, which is the optimal altitude for honeysuckle growth. It is pristine, pollution-free, and of high quality, with chlorogenic acid content reaching as high as 7.44%, far exceeding the national standard of 1.5%. It is one of the best varieties nationwide and is an excellent choice for medicinal and health products. Suichang has been cultivating wild honeysuckle for over 30 years. Currently, the county's planting area is nearly 20,000 mu (approx. 1,333 hectares), with an annual yield approaching 2 million catties.
Nutritional Value
1. Antimicrobial effects: It inhibits a variety of pathogenic bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Shigella, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhi, and Paratyphoid bacilli, among others.
2. It has bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects on pneumococcus, meningococcus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, tubercle bacillus, Shigella, Streptococcus mutans, and inhibitory effects on influenza virus, orphan virus, herpes virus, and leptospira.
3. Anti-inflammatory and detoxifying effects: It effectively treats carbuncles, boils, intestinal abscesses, and lung abscesses, dispersing them while clearing heat, detoxifying, and reducing inflammation.
4. Heat-clearing and evil-dispelling effects: It is effective against wind-heat exterior syndrome or the initial stages of febrile diseases, characterized by fever, headache, irritability, insomnia, red and purplish tongue, dry throat, and dry mouth.
5. Cooling blood and stopping dysentery: It treats heat-toxic dysentery, bloody diarrhea, dampness-heat obstruction, and sore throat, with detoxifying, dysentery-stopping, and cooling effects on the blood and throat.
Product Features
Convenient to carry, it can be brewed with boiling water and drunk like tea, suitable as a daily beverage for diabetic patients. Healthy individuals can drink it during summer to relieve heat and quench thirst; its taste is moderately sweet and bitter, refreshing and pleasant.
This tea is selected from premium honeysuckle buds grown at altitudes between 1,300 and 1,400 meters in Yinhua Village, Xiaoguan Town, Suichang County. It is processed using scientific methods, maintaining its natural state without pollution, making it an ideal health-preserving product and gift.
Manufacturing Method
1. Preparation of the tea base
Honeysuckle tea mainly uses refined green tea as the base material, accounting for about 90% of the total. Fresh tea leaves, consisting of one bud and two leaves or one bud and three leaves, are used as raw materials. The tea base is made according to the new green tea production process of “high-temperature fixation, rapid kneading, and complete baking.” Requirements include tightly compacted tea strips, tender leaves, and moisture content below 5%, with the removal of old leaves, tea stalks, impurities, and tea dust.
2. Harvesting of Honeysuckle
The harvesting period for honeysuckle is in summer when the flower buds turn from green to white and swell. They should be picked before they fully bloom on a sunny morning before 9 am (when the dew has not dried). At this time, the flowers have the strongest fragrance and are best preserved in color.
3. Aroma Absorption by the Tea Base
For every 10 kg of tea base, use 5-6 kg of fresh honeysuckle flowers. Based on the quantity of fresh flowers, evenly distribute them into several bags (made of nylon window screens) and spread them out. Place layers of tea base and flower bags in a clean wooden box.